Acts 5:39

But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(39) Fighters against God.—It is interesting to note the recurrence of the same phrase in the reasoning of the Pharisees who took St. Paul’s part in Acts 23:9.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:34-42 The Lord still has all hearts in his hands, and sometimes directs the prudence of the worldly wise, so as to restrain the persecutors. Common sense tells us to be cautious, while experience and observation show that the success of frauds in matters of religion has been very short. Reproach for Christ is true preferment, as it makes us conformable to his pattern, and serviceable to his interest. They rejoiced in it. If we suffer ill for doing well, provided we suffer it well, and as we should, we ought to rejoice in that grace which enabled us so to do. The apostles did not preach themselves, but Christ. This was the preaching that most offended the priests. But it ought to be the constant business of gospel ministers to preach Christ: Christ, and him crucified; Christ, and him glorified; nothing beside this, but what has reference to it. And whatever is our station or rank in life, we should seek to make Him known, and to glorify his name.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But if it be of God - If God is the "author" of this religion. From this it seems that Gamaliel supposed that it was at least possible that this religion was divine. He evinced a far more candid mind than did the rest of the Jews; but still it does not appear that he was entirely convinced. The arguments which could not but stagger the Jewish Sanhedrin were those drawn from the resurrection of Jesus, the miracle on the day of Pentecost, the healing of the lame man in the temple, and the release of the apostles from the prison.

Ye cannot overthrow it - Because:

(1) God has almighty power, and can execute his purposes;

(2) Because he is unchanging, and will not be diverted from his plans, Job 23:13-14.

The plan which God forms "must" be accomplished. All the devices of man are feebleness when opposed to him, and he can dash them in pieces in an instant. The prediction of Gamaliel has been fulfilled. People have opposed Christianity in every way, but in vain. They have reviled it; have persecuted it; have resorted to argument and to ridicule; to fire, and faggot, and sword; they have called in the aid of science; but all has been in vain. The more it has been crushed, the more it has risen, and it still exists with as much life and power as ever. The "preservation" of this religion amidst so much and so varied opposition proves that it is of God. No severer trial "can" await it than it has already experienced; and as it has survived so many storms and trials, we have every evidence that, according to the predictions, it is destined to live and to fill the world. See the Matthew 16:18; Isaiah 54:17; Isaiah 55:11 notes; Daniel 4:35 note.

Lest - That is, if you continue to oppose it, you may be found to have been opposing God.

Haply - Perhaps. In the Greek this is "lest at any time"; that is, at some future time, when too late to retract your doings, etc.

Ye be found - It shall appear that you have been opposing God.

Even to fight against God - Greek Θεομάχοι Theomachoi, "those who contend with God." The word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. To fight against God is to oppose him, or to maintain an attitude of hostility against him. It is an attitude that is most fearful in its character, and will most certainly be attended with an overthrow. No condition can be more awful than such an opposition to the Almighty; no overthrow more terrible than what must follow such opposition. Compare Acts 9:5; Acts 23:9. Opposition to the "gospel" in the Scriptures is uniformly regarded as opposition to God, Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23. People may be said to "fight against" God in the following ways, or on the following subjects:

(1) When they oppose his "gospel," its preaching, its plans, its influence among people; when they endeavor to prevent its diffusion, or to withdraw their families and friends from its influence.

(2) when they oppose the "doctrines" of the Bible. When they become angry that the real truths of religion are preached, and suffer themselves to be irritated and excited by an "unwillingness" that those doctrines should be true, and should be presented to people. Yet this is no uncommon thing. People by nature do not love those doctrines, and they are often indignant that they are preached. Some of the most angry feelings which people ever have arise from this source; and man can never find peace until he is "willing" that God's truth should exert its influence on his own soul, and rejoice that it is believed and loved by others.

(3) people oppose the "Law" of God. It seems to them too "stern" and "harsh." It condemns them; and they are unwilling that it should be applied to them. There is nothing which a sinner likes "less" than he does the pure and holy Law of God.

(4) sinners fight against the "providence" of God. When he afflicts them they rebel. When he takes away their health, or property, or friends, they complain. They esteem him harsh and cruel; and instead of finding peace by "submission," they greatly aggravate their sufferings, and infuse a mixture of wormwood and gall into the cup by complaining and repining. There is no peace in affliction but in the feeling that God is "right." And until this belief is cherished, the wicked will be like the troubled sea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, Isaiah 57:20. Such opposition to God is as wicked as it is foolish. The Lord gave, and has a right to remove our comforts; and we should be still, and know that he is God.

(5) sinners fight against God when they resist the influences of his Spirit; when they "oppose" serious thoughts; when they seek evil or frivolous companions and pleasures rather than submit to God; and when they spurn all the entreaties of their friends to become Christians. All these may be the appeals which God is making to people to be prepared to meet him. And yet it is common for sinners thus to stifle conviction, and refuse even to think of their eternal welfare. Nothing can be an act of more direct and deliberate wickedness and folly than this. Without the aid of the Holy Spirit none can be saved; and to resist his influences is to put away the only prospect of eternal life. To do it is to do it over the grave; not knowing that another hour of life may be granted; and not knowing that "if" life is prolonged, the Spirit will ever strive again with the heart. In view of this verse, we may remark:

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

38. if … of men, it will come to naught—This neutral policy was true wisdom, in the then temper of the council. But individual neutrality is hostility to Christ, as He Himself teaches (Lu 11:23).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The other part of the dilemma.

The counsel of the Lord, that shall stand, Proverbs 19:21 Isaiah 46:10; and it must needs be so, for all power is his, in whom we live and move, Acts 17:28.

Fight against God; they who afflict and contend with his people unjustly, though they little think so, set themselves against God, who will overcome at the last, and triumph over his and his people’s enemies.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But if it be of God,.... If it is according to the counsel of his will; if it is a scheme of his forming, and a work to which he has called these men, and they proceed in it on good principles, and with a view to the honour and glory of God:

ye cannot overthrow it; it will proceed and get ground, and stand, maugre all the opposition of hell and earth; therefore do nothing to them, or hinder them from going on. Some copies read, "ye cannot overthrow them"; and add, "neither you, nor kings, nor tyrants; wherefore refrain from these men"; so Beza's Cambridge copy.

Lest haply ye be found even to fight against God; which to do is downright madness, and which no man in his senses can expect to succeed in. There are some sayings of the Jewish doctors which seem to agree with these reasonings of Gamaliel (p).

"Says R. Jochanan the shoemaker, every congregation, which is for the name of heaven (or God) at length shall be established, but that which is not for the glory of God shall not be established in the end.''

Which one of the commentators (q) interprets in words still nearer to Gamaliel's language, thus:

"it shall be that that counsel which is for God shall stand and prosper, but that which is not for God shall cease.''

And in another place it is said (r),

"all contention (or dispute) which is for God, at length shall be established, but that which is not for God shall not in the end be established: what is contention that is for God? the contention of Hillell and Shammai, (two famous doctors among the Jews,) but that which is not for God is the contention of Korah, and his whole company.''

Some have thought from this advice of Gamaliel, that he was a Christian, or greatly inclined to Christianity; but when it is considered what respect was shown him at his death by the Jews, before observed on Acts 5:34 it will appear that he died a Pharisee; and especially it cannot be thought he had any favourable sentiments of the Christians, since a little before his death he ordered a prayer to be made against them. Maimonides says (s), that

"in the days of Rabban Gamaliel, the Epicureans (so the Amsterdam edition reads, but former editions read "heretics", by whom are meant Christians) increased in Israel; and they distressed the Israelites, and seduced them to turn aside from God; and when he saw that this was greater than all the necessities of the children of men, he stood up, and his council or sanhedrim, and composed another prayer, in which there was a request to God to destroy the Epicureans,''

or heretics, meaning the Christians: and though this prayer is sometimes ascribed to Samuel the little, yet it was composed by him at the hint and instigation of Gamaliel; for so it is said (t), R. Gamaliel said to the wise men,

"is there no man that knows how to compose a prayer for the Sadducees? (R. Asher reads "heretics";) Samuel the little stood up and composed one.''

And it is also said (u), that

"Samuel the little composed, , "the prayer for the heretics", before, or in the presence of Gamaliel the elder.''

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Geneva Study Bible

But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 5:39. ἐάν … εἰ δὲ: it has sometimes been thought that the change of mood from subjunctive to indicative, “but if it is of God,” as if indicating that the second supposition were the more probable (cf. Galatians 1:8-9), indicates sympathy on the part of Gamaliel. It is of course possible that he may have been rendered favourably disposed towards the Christians by their strict observance of the Law, and by their appeal to a doctrine which widely divided Pharisees and Sadducees. Others have attributed the change in mood, not to Gamaliel at all, but to the author (so Overbeck, Holtzmann), and have maintained (so Blass, Weiss, cf. Winer-Moulton, xli. 2) that the indicative may be used because the second is the case with which the Council had actually to deal, the assertion, i.e., of the Apostles. There may also be an underlying contrast between the transitoriness of all mere human schemes, all of which would be overthrown, and the certainty of that which is “of God,” and which has Him for its Author. There cannot be the least ground for supposing that Gamaliel’s counsel was in its tenor a mere invention, as it bears the impress of a thorough Rabbinical wise saying, cf. Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, v., 24 (Taylor, p. 93, second edition). See too Herod., ix. 16; Eur., Hippol., vi., 76; for the construction, cf. Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses, p. 96, and Viteau, Le Grec du N. T., pp. 103, 113 (1893), who compares LXX, Genesis 44:23; Genesis 44:26.—οὐ δύνασθε: R.V. and W.H[186], δυνήσεσθε. καταλῦσαι with accusative of person in Xen., Cyr., viii., 5, 24; Plato, Legg., iv., p. 714, ., cf. 4Ma 4:16. But without this addition it is usual to refer back to προσέχετε in Acts 5:35 (cf. Luke 21:34) for the construction of μήποτε; but μήποτε … εὑρεθῆτε may be explained on the principle that a verb of fearing is sometimes unexpressed, the idea of fear being supplied by the context (in clauses where μή with the subjunctive is found), Burton, u. s., p. 96.—μήποτε, “lest haply,” its use in later Greek, Blass, Grammatik des N. G., p. 208. καί sometimes interpreted (so Alford, Wendt, Holtzmann), as if it meant not only against man but also against God. θεομάχοι: not found elsewhere, but cf. LXX, Job 26:5, Symm., and in Proverbs 9:18; Proverbs 21:16, applying the word to the Rephaim (see B.D.2 “Giants”); in 2Ma 7:19 we have θεομαχεῖν ἐπεχείρησας. In classical Greek the same verb is found, see Grimm and Wendt for instances; θεομαχία, Plato, Rep., 378, D. (as certain books of the Iliad were called, especially the 19). The tolerance of the sentiments here attributed to Gamaliel is undoubtedly in perfect accordance with what we know of his character and opinions; the decisions attributed to him, e.g., that relating to the law of the Sabbath (Hamburger, Real-Encyclopädie des Judentums, ii., 2, 237; see also Derenbourg, Histoire de la Palestine, pp. 239–246, and cf. also Renan, Apostles, p. 153, E.T.), are marked by a tendency to mildness and liberality; and perhaps a still more remarkable illustration of the same tendency is afforded by the enactment so often referred to him (Hamburger, u. s.) to allow to the poor of the heathen, as well as of Israel, the gleaning and a participation in the corn left standing in the corner of the fields, to inquire after the welfare of the Gentile poor, to maintain them, to visit their sick, to bury their dead (the prayer against heretics belonged not to this Gamaliel, but to Gamaliel II.). But the decision of Gamaliel was not prompted by any sympathy with the Christians; it was the judgment of toleration and prudence, but certainly nothing more, although it scarcely falls under the head of “cynical”; it was rather, as Ewald called it, that of an ordinary politician. No credence whatever can be attributed to the tradition that Gamaliel became a Christian, or that he was secretly a Christian, although we may sympathise with St. Chrysostom’s words, “it cannot be that he should have continued in unbelief to the end”. The Talmud distinctly affirms that he died a Jew, and, if he had betrayed his faith, we cannot understand the honour which Jewish tradition attaches to his name, “Gamaliel,” B.D.2; Schürer, Jewish People, div. ii., vol. i., p. 364. Wendt, while he refuses to admit the historical character of the speech of Gamaliel, is evidently puzzled to discover any definite grounds for St. Luke’s wilful introduction of the famous Rabban into the scene (so too Feine). He therefore supposes that the decision in Acts 5:38, in which he sees a wise saying similar to those attributed to other Rabbis, was assigned by tradition to Gamaliel, and that St. Luke, who was in possession of the further tradition that Gamaliel had given a decisive judgment in the trial of the Apostles, introduces this saying into the speech which he attributes to Gamaliel as fitting to the occasion. But there is no indication in our authorities that the sentiment thus attributed to Gamaliel was in any way different from what might have been expected of him (see Schürer, Jewish People, u. s.). The chief objection to the speech, viz., the alleged anachronism involved in the mention of Theudas, really begs the question as to its authenticity, and even on the supposition of an inaccuracy in the point mentioned, we cannot get rid of the fact that the attitude of Gamaliel in itself betrays no inconsistency. It was this alleged anachronism which caused Spitta to refer the incident of Gamaliel in this chapter to his inferior source ., and to refuse to adopt the solution of Weiss and Feine, who solved the difficulty involved in the mention of Theudas by introducing the hand of a reviser.

[186] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

39. but if it be of God] The verb is not in the same mood as in the previous clause, and had the construction been in classical Greek, it might have indicated some opinion on Gamaliel’s part of the truth of Christianity = “If it is [as it is] of God.” But in the N. T. the construction indicates no more than a simple conditional. Yet to mark the difference of phrase, read here, But if it is of God.

ye cannot overthrow it] The best authorities read, ye will not be able to overthrow it.

lest haply ye be found, &c.] The clause depends on, “Take heed to yourselves …” (Acts 5:35).

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 5:39. Μή ποτε καὶ, lest haply even) This use of the particles implies courtesy. The even signifies, that, independently of the vainness of the attempt, they would be guilty even of reckless impiety. This clause depends on the sense of the clause immediately preceding: ye cannot, and therefore ye ought not attempt, to dissolve or overthrow it.—θεομάχοι) This word is put by Symmachus more than once for the Hebr. רפאים. The conjugates are Θεοῦ and θεομάχοι. [There is a large number of such persons.—V. g.]—εὑρέθητε, ye be found) in the issue.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 39. - Is for be, A.V.; will not be able to for cannot, A.V.; them for it, A.V. and T.R.; to be fighting for to fight, A.V. Acts 5:39

Vincent's Word Studies

To fight against God (θεομάχοι)

Lit., to be God- fighters.